Chapter 42: Let the lamb get fatter

Chapter 42: Let the lamb get fatterMeanwhile, the rest of the world was in a complete uproar. System-wide announcements rang back to back, making everyone freeze in shock and awe. Sёarch* The ηovёlFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. [Ding! Global System Announcement!] [Player "Blood God" has set the First Clear Record for the dungeon "Twilight Hollows"!] [Ding! Global System Announcement!] [Player "Blood God" has achieved a Perfect Clear in the dungeon "Twilight Hollows"!] The announcements boomed in front of every player, system screen flashing in golden letters, symbols of prestige and power that no one could ignore. Players in towns and cities stopped whatever they were doing. Merchants froze mid-bargain. Adventurers in mid-fight stumbled, distracted. Guild leaders scrambled to message their intelligence networks. Who the hell was Blood God? No one had heard of such a name before! And yet here he was—snatching away three firsts in one night, first with a world boss and then setting records in one of the newly unlocked dungeons no less. World Chat: "That mofo cleared a level 15 to level 25 dungeon single-handedly!" "Complete bullshit! I think the dungeons here adjust according to the skill level of the players." "Fuck. Shut up. My team just got wiped when we tried to run the poisoned land dungeon." "Of course, you are going to wipe out if you try running a dungeon full of poisonous beasts. This Twilight Hollow sounds like an easy dungeon. If you are near that area, you should try it." "What is up with this Niera city? Everything there seems extremely easy. Is that the cheat starting point of the game?" "Here I am unable to even kill a single boar, and this guy is clearing dungeons and claiming world boss. This game is super bugged! Where the fuck should I report this player?" "Come on. I will also make a report." "Ya. Ya. Let’s all report Blood God and get that fucking guy banned." Group chats, online forums, everyone was discussing the same strategy. The more everyone talked about it, the more they felt better. That asshole was going to become miserable soon and that gave the general public a sort of satisfaction. However, soon the aggrieved players ran into another roadblock. They noticed a small flaw in the strategy. There wasn’t a specific place to file a bug report or an error report? What the hell? "Let’s just use the company’s email address." Unfortunately, the email also turned out to be a deadend and all the emails bounced back. In fact, except for the order button for the game helmet, pretty much nothing else was working on the website. There was no phone number, no email, no physical address to the contact the game developers. On the other side, more serious players doubled down their efforts and pushed their progress. By now, many players had reached level 10 and started forming guilds. This opened up all the game leaderboards to the public, once again sending a ripple of chaos and commotion among the players. POWER LEADERBOARD (Top 5 Highest Levels) Blood God - Level 18 Nightblade_77 – Level 15 Vortexx – Level 14 Ares_Godhand – Level 14 SilverCrane – Level 14 CrimsonWolf – Level 14 WEALTH LEADERBOARD (Top 5 Richest Players) BloodWraith – 30,000 Gold Ares_Godhand – 11,480 Gold MerchantQueen_Luna – 9,990 Gold VaultKing92 – 9,700 Gold SilentFang – 8,880 Gold FAME LEADERBOARD (Top 5 Most Celebrated Players) Blood God SilverCrane Vortexx SkyKnight101 Ares_Godhand NOTORIETY LEADERBOARD (Top 5 Most Wanted Players) Blood God WickedAshes DarkRose BlackPhoenix FrozenThorn The game world was in full-blown turmoil. Players, NPCs, and guild leaders alike could not stop talking about the mysterious player "Blood God" who had seemingly appeared from nowhere to dominate the rankings. The moment the system-wide announcements hit, the entire player base had been struck with disbelief. Blood God’s name was on every leaderboard, and his achievements were so extraordinary that it felt like a story woven by the game developers to show off some unbeatable player. Aurora stood outside a green dungeon portal, the entrance to the dungeon, the Meadow of Thorns, dimly pulsing in front of her. Yet she couldn’t tear her eyes away from the flashing system screens hanging in the air. The golden letters burned themselves into her mind: Blood God, Blood God, Blood God. Aurora clenched her fists. "Blood God, who the hell are you?" she muttered under her breath, narrowing her sharp eyes. In other parts of Niera city, another group became extremely heated. Daddy Brutal was currently standing with Golden Dragon guild members as they monopolized a mine in the outer Niera region when the announcements came flooding in. His face darkened immediately. "Boss, this Blood God guy... he’s on every board!" one of his lieutenants muttered, shifting awkwardly under the heavy tension in the air. Daddy Brutal’s fists clenched at his sides. He was a hardcore gangster ruling the streets of Italy for years. When he heard that a ultra-realistic game like Earth Online was going to be launched, his inner game nerd got triggered and he decided to get into the game. But now he knew that this game was so much more. Others might not know yet but Daddy Brutal knew some high-level secrets because his grandfather still has connections with some very mysterious families. In a week, there was going to be a major change coming to this game. Currently players can spend money to buy gold coins inside the game but in a week they were going to update this feature. Players would soon be able to sell the gold coins and convert it into real world cash! A beggar could become a millionaire overnight if he played the game right! Daddy Brutal did not really care about such beggars. What he cared about was power and this game was going to give him that. Among these gaming nerds who knew nothing about fighting, his mafia was going to stand out like diamonds. With their skills and combat abilities, they were going to outshine everyone and become the strongest guild in the whole world. But this damned blood god had given them set backs after set backs right from the beginning. "Boss, what do we do?" his second-in-command whispered. "Why did that guy have to start in the same area as us? We got such bad luck because of him." "We should bury him before he gets any stronger." "No." Daddy Brutal shook his head. "Don’t think like that. Right now you are thinking like a loser. You need to think like a winner." "Boss?" "That guy is never going to be a threat to us. He is a single person. We have fifty men in our group, fifty well trained fighters. Imagine how strong we are going to become in a just a couple of weeks." The guys nodded with determination. Daddy Brutal smiled. A vicious smile that betrayed his thoughts. "That guy blood god is our little lamb. Let him eat and become fatter. The fatter and juicier he becomes the better. When we finally slaughter him, we can have a grand feast! He clapped a heavy hand on his second-in-command’s shoulder, making the man stumble slightly. "In fact," Daddy Brutal said, voice dripping with malicious excitement, "keep an eye on him. Let him climb. Let him become a shining beacon. The higher he goes, the harder the fall. And when he falls..." He licked his lips. "It will be our name that echoes through this world." Around him, the other Golden Dragon members cheered, rallying behind his bloodthirsty ambition.